Dear Sir-For ourselves, and in behalf of the
very large congregations which heard your sermon on the death of our
lamented late President, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, (preached on Sabbath, the
23d ult,, and, by a general request of our citizens, repeated last
evening,) we thank you, a nd, in compliance with an almost universally
expressed desire that it be published, we ask that you will oblige us
with a copy for that purpose.

"CLOUDS AND DARKNESS ARE ROUND ABOUT HIM; RIGHTEOUSNESS AND
JUDGMENT ARE THE HABITATION OF HIS THRONE."

WE shall not detain you with an extended argument to prove the
doctrine of a Divine Providence. It is a fact of natural and revealed
religion. It would be as rational to deny the existence of God as to
controvert His Providence. The power which created is alone sufficient
to uphold all things. The perfections of God, the nature of man, the
order of the universe-all add their testimony to the truth so
frequently and so explicitly stated in the Bible, that God sits upon
the throne of universal dominion.

In our great national sorrow and personal grief we seek comfort. We
may find it in this doctrine of our holy religion. God grant, that as
we look upward through the gloom, and toward the curtained throne, we
may hear the voice of Infinite Love saying, "Be not afraid, only
believe."

We shall speak of the throne itself, the obscurity which surrounds
it, and its foundations, laid in the righteousness and judgment of
God.

A throne implies dominion. Jehovah's dominion is as limitless as
creation. It reaches to all worlds, and to all creatures. It is seen
in the material universe. It is manifested in the
regular succession of the seasons. Seed-time and harvest, summer and
winter, come and go at their appointed time. The Lord waters the hills
from His chambers. He causeth grass to grow for cattle, and herb for
the service of man. Secondary causes owe all their efficiency to the
great First Cause. The laws of Nature are of God's appointment and
execution. Hence, it is His hand bestows every earthly blessing.

His dominion extends to other worlds;
to the starry heavens, system beyond system, all moving in silence,
and with the utmost precision and regularity along their pathways
through the sky. He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them
all by their names. He guideth Arcturus with his sons; He bindeth the
sweet influences of Pleiades; He looseth the bands of Orion, and He
bringeth forth Mazzaroth in his season.

Thus God's Providence extends from the dewdrop on the
flower, to the most distant world which

moves in the infinite space. As King of Nature we praise Him, and bow
reverently at His feet.

This providence embraces the intelligent
creation. It is God who appoints the time, place, and
circumstances of our birth, and of our death. God assigned us our
respective positions in the world, whether high
or low; whether crowned with light or curtained with clouds; whether
posts of honorable authority or humble service, of responsible wealth
or anxious poverty. God determined the capacity of our
minds, and the channels of their
exercise. The lofty intellect, the far-reaching thought, the
soaring imagination, and the inventive genius; or the humble
intellect, the plodding mind, the feeble conception,-are all derived
from Him who distributes according to His sovereign pleasure. He gave
to Milton his poetic talents, and he wrote his Paradise Lost; to
Bunyan his powers of allegory, and he described the Pilgrim's Progress
from this world to that which is to come; to Isaac Newton those
natural endowments which distinguish the astronomer, he investigated
the laws of matter, and read the glorious visions of the skies; to
Locke those powers of analyzing the human mind, which made him the
most distinguished intellectual. philosopher of his age.

add, that God took David from the field and made the shepherd-boy king
over Israel, ruling wisely, and reigning long. He raised up Solomon,
whose name is associated with the highest attainments of the human
mind, and the culmination of Israel's glory. God gave to England the
pious Alfred, who taught the dark-minded people the way of life, and
strengthened the foundations of the government, which has stood
through a thousand succeeding years. It was the same God over all who
gave to this land the great and good George Washington, whom we style
the Father of our Country, and it was He who gave to this nation, in
the day of its peril, the noble, meek, and honest patriot, whose name
shall ever be linked with that of Washington, who, under God,
preserved to us the heritage received from our fathers.

God also assigned to humbler men, in Church and State, their
spheres of labor-men whose names are not written in history or graven
on marble, who acted well their part-whose record is on high.

Again, consider the Providence of God as it has respect to nations. What is true of individuals is true of
States. It is God who moves the vast machinery of national
affairs-gives prosperity and sends adversity-blesses with peace and
desolates, with war; who humbles the proud, chastises the

wicked, and exterminates the incorrigible; showing Himself a just and
holy God, who will exalt a righteous people, but cannot connive at
iniquity, or suffer a sinful nation to go unpunished. The wages of
national sin, unrepented of, is national death. "Thus saith the Lord
God, remove the diadem and take off the crown." On the other hand,
"Happy is that people whose God is the Lord," they shall abide under
his shadow, and be joyful in their King.

We see God in history. He walks among
the kingdoms of the earth. He evokes from obscurity, and sends into
oblivion. Jehovah is on the Throne! The history of the Hebrew Commonwealth furnishes an
exemplification. Their deliverance from Egyptian bondage; their
passage through the wilderness; the subjugation of Canaan, and their
establishment in the Land of Promise; their power and glory under
David, God's chosen vicegerent; their dismemberment under Rehoboam, by
the secession of the ten tribes, soon extinguished as a nation; the
captivity of Judah in Babylon; their restoration by Cyrus, and, on
account of their wickedness, the final dispersion of the Jews over the
whole earth,--all reveal a righteous God, true to His character, and
faithful to His word, all the while working out His own eternal
purpose.

from the day the sceptre departed from Judah until now. On the
continent of Europe we see nations rise from small beginnings, advance
with rapidity in power, influence, and wealth, attain a culmination in
glory which is the world's astonishment, and then, like glowing
meteors in the sky, rush downward, and go out in eternal darkness!

We notice His interposition in behalf
of others, delivering from a threatening doom the humbled nations
which fled to the refuge of His power. When the Spanish fleet, called
the Invincible Armada, sailed proudly and defiantly toward the shores
of Protestant England, and the wreck of pure religion and cherished
liberties seemed just at hand, then God came in the whirlwind and in
the storm, burying the boastful fleet in the depths of the ocean; and
the pious Queen recognized the Deliverer of her people, in the medals
which bore the inscription, "Afflavit Deus et dissipantur"-"God has
blown, and they are scattered."

And though men will not as readily discern the hand of God
in the discovery of the plot intended to destroy an English King and
his Parliament, kept a profound secret for more than a year, yet, had
they a clearer vision, they would see it there,
moving on the mind of one man, and directing to the divulgence of the
terrible scheme, as certainly as deter-

Again, we see God's overruling hand in the persecutions of
a later day, which led to the colonization of America, and reared the
sanctuary beside the capitol, under the shadow of primeval forests,
and made the wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Yes, Jehovah is on
the throne! Hence the record, long ago, "By Naaman the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria." "Jehozidak
went into captivity when the Lord carried away
Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar." "Promotion cometh
neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but God is the Judge. He putteth down one, and setteth up
another." The Lord reigneth! He chastiseth sin. He afflicts, that He
may preserve from greater evil. He leads His people through the fires,
that He may fit them for nobler service and greater glory.

God permits the evil, and ordains the good. He permitted Israel to sin in the
wilderness; He ordained to bring them into Canaan. He permitted the
moral darkness of the Middle Ages to gather over Europe; He ordained
Wickliffe to be the morning star of the Reformation. He permitted the
slave trade, He ordained the liberation of the oppressed, He permitted
the assassin to strike the blow which

suddenly and sadly terminated the life of our lamented Chief
Magistrate; and we trust He has ordained, by the hand of Joshua, to
lead the people into the promised land.

God is not the author of sin. Such an imputation were
blasphemous. The perfections of His character preclude a positive
agency in sin; but He permits and overrules it. Some one has said, a
dark shadow is not pleasant in itself, and is not drawn on the canvass
because of any intrinsic beauty; but it serves to set forth the beauty
which is the main design of the painter's art. So sin, which is in the
world, is the dark background, presenting in bolder relief the justice
and mercy of God.

II. THE OBSCURITY OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

"Clouds and darkness are round about Him." Mystery is everywhere. It is in Nature. We
stand in the outer court of God's creation, and the inner temple is to
us a great unknown. The body is mysteriously
made. The mind is a mystery to the ever-expanding
intellect which traces its labyrinths. The universe is wrapped in clouds, and our eyes cannot
penetrate the mists which gather on the near horizon.

Redemption is a mystery. Angels cannot
read it fully; saints shall study it for ever, and never

fathom its depths. Is it any wonder, then, that we cannot understand
the providence of God? One who was admitted to His presence-chamber,
and held intimate communion with Him; who studied history in the light
of fulfilled prophecy, and, aided by inspiration, anticipated results
concealed from other minds, was yet compelled to say, "Thy way is in
the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not
known."

We ought to hold fast the truth that God is in every event,
and we may learn lessons of wisdom from providences which we cannot
fully understand. Whatever befalls us, we should say, "It is the Lord;
let Him do what seemeth him good." And if we will listen, we may hear
the voice of Jesus in the storm, saying, "Be of good cheer, it is
I."

We may oftentimes trace the connection between the sin and
its punishment. Herod exalted himself to the dignity of a god, and
appropriated to himself the glory due to the Creator, and immediately
disease smote, and worms consumed him. Impious youth, meeting Elisha
on his way to Bethel, mocked him, saying: "Go up thou bald-head; go up
thou bald-head!" and God who has, with an awful emphasis, forbidden
men to harm His prophets, sent wild beasts from the wood to destroy
them. The blasphemer curses God and dares the vengeance of the

Almighty, and the next moment the tongue is palsied, or the crashing
thunderbolt destroys him. The employer defrauds the hireling of his
wages, grinds the faces of the poor, withholds his tithes from the
Lord, and flames consume his treasures, or floods carry them
away. There is no mystery here. The ultimate design may be far away,
but the immediate result reveals God's displeasure with sin.

Yet we should be charitable in our judgment of God's
providences, as they have respect to others. Those eighteen, on whom
the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, were not sinners above all
men that dwelt in Jerusalem. The manner of a man's death does not
indicate the moral quality of his life. The assassination of our late
President does not change our previous estimate of his official life,
as one of integrity, justice, and clemency. The first of our race who
passed through death to eternal life, was distinguished for his simple
faith and earnest piety, and yet he fell by the hands of a
murderer. John the Baptist, who heralded the glorious gospel day, was
beheaded. The pious Stephen was cast out of the city, and was
stoned. James, and Peter, and Paul, all suffered violent deaths,
though their lives had been singularly pure, and their works
accepted. Walter Lowrie was murdered just on the threshold

of his usefulness, and in the sea, full many a fathom deep, waits the
dawning of the resurrection day.

Neither do great trials demonstrate God's
displeasure. Those who are afflicted most, may be the special
favorites of Heaven. The maligned and persecuted may recline on the
bosom of Divine Love, and take Patmos on their way to Paradise. These
fleeting years are but a point in the soul's unending life. Could we
perceive what lies beyond, we should discern Divine favor, and needed
discipline in the afflictions of the present.

We are like children travelling through an unknown
country. Marching and counter-marching, now bearing away in this
direction, now in that; now climbing rugged steeps, and then passing
through gloomy defiles, there seems an unnecessary expenditure of
strength, and experience of painfulness in our progress. We do not see
the dangers that are thus avoided, nor know the advantages of the
trials by the way. "Clouds and darkness are round about Him."

What is true of individuals is equally true of Nations. God deals strangely with the State. We do
not know His purpose, and cannot now see the wisdom which has
permitted the sad event we mourn to-day. Moreover, we do not know the
relation which one event sustains to another, or the influence

which one nation is designed to exert upon another. Our vision is
limited, both as respects space and time. The great God who sits on
the circle of the earth, takes in all lands in His comprehensive
purposes, and designs this age, to tell on ages far away-this people
on generations yet unborn.

Jewish history is not ended. There are some streams which
seem to be lost, which emerge again from their subterranean passages,
to flow on in widening channels. There are wheels within wheels which
move not now, which shall revolve again, by and by. Whilst God is
working the complicated machinery of His Providence in this land, it may be with references to the
down-trodden on the other side of the globe, and to set in motion
other schemes, of which we have never dreamed, which shall fill the
world with His glory.

Who, by searching, can find out God? What finite mind can
trace the pathway of the Infinite? We may boast of our ability to
interpret the providences of God, and charge others with stupidity,
when, in our conjectures, we have not made the remotest approximation
to truth. We may speak with great confidence concerning the future
developements of providence, but God will rebuke our folly--going by
some other way. "Clouds and darkness are round about Him." As well
might the savage

who had never before been beyond the limits of his hunting grounds,
entering for the first time some vast manufactory, attempt to point
out the relations of one part of the complicated machinery to another,
of cylinder to revolving wheel, of governor to the velocity of
movement, or describe with minuteness the nature and quality of the
various fabrics issuing from concealed looms far above, as man, born
but yesterday, whose wisdom is ignorance, attempt to indicate the laws
which regulate the providences of God, the design of this calamity,
the issue of that trial, or the Divine purpose concerning any people
in ages far away. We are ignorant alike of the warp and woof of God's
providence, and the utmost we can say is, that somehow, and somewhere,
and at some time, the result of all the strange and varied occurrences
of this world will be glory to God and good to His church. This we
learn from the inspired statement: "Righteousness and judgment are the
habitation of His throne."

III. THE WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF PROVIDENCE.

What God does is right. The issue of all the discipline of
the present will be blessed. Though clouds gather about Him, and
darkness which we cannot penetrate, yet we are assured that the
eternal principles of righteousness and judgment are the basis of His
throne, and in the day of

sorrow, or anticipated evil, faith takes refuge in the changeless
perfections of God, saying: "What time I am afraid, I will trust in
Thee."

When we note the operations of nature
we discover what, at first, seems to indicate the absence of law and
order. The pleasant breeze which rustles in the oaks and fans the
fevered brow to-day, becomes to-morrow a mighty rushing wind,
uprooting forests, overturning cities, and carrying destruction all
along its progress. The gentle shower which refreshes the earth and
cools the atmosphere of this sultry day, becomes to-morrow a violent
storm; rivers rise, and floods sweep away the accumulated wealth of
years. One element in nature seems to war against another, and what
one builds up another pulls down. Yet the diligent student of nature
is able to account for this seeming mystery. Though much must be
resolved into the sovereignty of God, and much be accounted for on the
principle that man is a fallen creature, yet he will discover law in
nature, and unity of design. He sees good, ultimate, if not immediate,
in all. He follows along the convergent lines of nature until he
arrives at the central Throne, and sees the hand of Infinite Love
managing all, and leading on through all changes and revolutions to
the consummation of great and beneficent ends.

but we should trust when we cannot see. We accept the truth,
"Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne;" and
from within the curtained dwelling-place there comes, as of old, that
sweet, consolatory saying of Him whom our souls love: "What I do thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."

At the same time we know in part. We
can see the working of those principles which lie at the foundation of
God's government, in our experience, and from what we know, though it
be but little, we draw hope concerning the future.

We watched, through many years, the progress of one of
God's people. In that life every sorrow proved a blessing, every
bereavement was followed by a manifest unfolding of the life within,
and growing meetness for the life above. The Christian advanced in
faith and patience, in gentleness and goodness, in usefulness and
spiritual mindedness, as time went on. As the grass looks greener, and
the atmosphere is purer, and the birds sing more sweetly when the
storm is over, so that life reflected more of the Saviour's beauty,
the conversation was more spiritual, and the heart was more fixed in
its calm, confiding trust, after each darkening sorrow had passed
by.

To Paul's imprisonment in Rome we are indebted for those
noble epistles, scattered abroad like leaves

plucked from the tree of life. Had John Bunyan been permitted to
preach, undisturbed, at the little church in Bedford, we should never
have had the immortal Allegory which has so long directed and
comforted pilgrims on their way home. Had not Alexis been
assassinated, Martin Luther might have lived and died a stranger to
grace, the dawn of the Reformation put on a thousand years. Had not
death entered the pleasant home in Cardington, John Howard would not
have traversed the prison world of Europe, and given to philanthropy
an impulse which shall never die.

God is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His
works. His wisdom is infinite. His love is boundless. He selects the
best ends, and chooses. the best means by which to reach them. The
Psalmist, reviewing the history of Israel, strange and varied, saw the
goodness of God in it all, and said: "Thou leddest Thy people like a
flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Saints in heaven, gone up out
of great tribulation, as they look back over the way by which they
came thither,-persecuted, afflicted, tormented, sawn asunder, nailed
to crosses, drowned in rivers, assassinated in darkness, or burned at
noon-day,-all say, as they read that strange experience in the
effulgence of Heaven, "He hath done all things well."

is to draw from this precious truth the comfort God designed it to
impart. Jehovah is on the Throne! This is our
joy. It is a light in a dark place. It is a refuge in the day of
trouble. It is a sure foundation when seas roar, and the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof. Let all suffering ones enter this
chamber of Divine truth, and shut the doors about them until the storm
be overpast.

On this day, surrounded with these sable emblems of our grief,
we are constrained to refer once more to that great calamity which has
filled our land with mourning. Our late President, honored and
beloved, is no more! He has fallen by the hands of an assassin. In
conscious integrity and singular charity, he walked abroad without
fear. Taking advantage of this unguarded sense of security, the
crouching, stealthy foe, who but an hour before had been met with a
pleasant smile of recognition, by an infamous act which shall be
execrated by the civilized world until time shall end, plucked down
the pillar of our hope, and extinguished for ever one of the brightest
luminaries God ever set in the firmament of our national power. It has
seemed a terrible dream, and we have waited for the waking, but it has
not come. We must accept the sad truth, and write a chapter in our
national history unlike any that has gone before.

lowly life, step by step, to that position of honor and responsibility
he filled so well. When the candidates for that high office passed in
review before us, as Jesse's sons before the prophet; we thought
another was God's choice, but He who never errs, selected the noblest,
the wisest, the best. As he came forth from the comparative seclusion
of his former life, he felt that he had been called to rule in
perilous times, he acknowledged his dependence on God, and sought His
help. How touching those parting words addressed to the friends he
left, and how earnest his request to be remembered in their
prayers!

Good men may have differed in their opinions of certain
official acts, but as we look calmly over the administration which is
for ever closed, taking, it all in all, we may see in it the guiding
hand of God. That wisdom, calmness, decision, gentleness, and
leniency, surely came from the great Father in Heaven. Though by no
means infallible, yet, such adornment of character, and such
adaptation to times and circumstances have rarely been equalled. One
who knew him well, a clergyman of great piety, intelligence, and
discernment, has well said:* "The people confided in the late lamented
President with a firm and loving confidence, which no other man
enjoyed since the days of Washington. He deserved it well,

and deserved it all. He merited it by his character, and by his
acts, and by the whole tenor, and tone, and spirit of his life. He was
wise, simple, and sincere; plain and honest, truthful and just. His
perceptions were quick and clear; his judgment was calm and accurate,
and his purposes were good and pure beyond a question. He is dead, but
the memory of his virtues, of his wise and patriotic counsels and
labors, of his calm and steady faith in God, lives, is precious, and
will be a power for good in the country quite down to the end of
time."

If honesty was a prominent characteristic of President
Lincoln, so also was leniency. Hence the statement of a pleasant
writer: "The few criticisms that have been made upon his
administration, have fixed only on those acts in which the tenderness
and humanity of his heart seemed to have weakened his executive
severity;" and truly has it been said, that no vengeful words against
his enemies did he ever utter. Like David, who directed the captains
of his hosts, as they went forth to fight in the wood of Ephraim, to
deal gently, for his sake, with the young man, even Absalom, so our
lamented President said to the commanders of our armies, "deal gently
with the conquered foe;" and the terms of surrender accepted by the
head of the army of Virginia, were such as few others in the station
would have suggested. He stood between the indignation of the

North, and the people of the South, as if to preserve from promiscuous
ruin, urging the misguided sons of the Republic to come home; with a
singular kindliness of heart proffering restoration to the privileges
and immunities they had forfeited. Ah yes! the enemies of our country
have slain their best and most powerful earthly friend.

Loving, gentle, and indulgent in his home; unaffected,
kind, and self-sacrificing in social intercourse, he carried these
traits of character into the great world, and manifested them in all
his relations to the government and its enemies. No President, save
one, as already intimated, has so won the hearts of the nation. With
more diversity of opinion under his administration than existed during
the Revolutionary struggle, he yet had the sympathy and support of the
great mass of the people, and conciliated many who were his political
opponents.

In his death we have sustained a sad bereavement. Such
depression was, perhaps, never known in the history of our own nation
or any other. Strong men bow themselves and weep like
children. Battle-scarred veterans cover their faces and mourn. Mothers
and their daughters mingle their lamentations and tears. The wealthy
drape their homes in mourning, and the poor give their last penny that
they may exhibit some token of their heart's deep sorrow. Public
buildings are clad with the insignia

of grief, and starry banners which floated over our homes in our late
rejoicings, now droop in sympathy with our sadness, and everywhere is
heard the mournful pealing of funeral bells.

To-day, in Independence Hall, just where, years ago, he
declared his readiness to die rather than desert the right, surrounded
with those historic walls which suggest memories sad and joyous, the
remains of our martyred President rest for a season. The generation
gone seems to return from the silent land to that sanctuary of the
Republic, that they may look on the calm face of him who, under God,
completed the work they began, and to weep with the weeping
nation. The living and the dead, the past and the present, heaven and
earth are there; and never before did the veiled sun look down upon
such a funeral cortege as that.

No sorrow like the present ever before filled our
hearts. We loved the President, and we mourn his death. We know not
how any one can be so unfeeling as not to mourn. He sleeps-the noble
patriot, the kind friend, the honest man! Though prone to that which
is wrong, I thank God that no unkind word concerning him ever passed
these lips; that no sympathy with the rebellion that slew him was ever
cherished in this heart. I know not how any one can be so base-so lost
to every principle of religion, of patriotism, and humanity, as to
rejoice over

this murderous deed-this culminating act of rebellion. I would not
injure such a man, but until he gave evidence of repentance, and of a
better mind, I could not receive him to my confidence, nor recognize
in him a Christian, or a friend to my race. I have reason to believe
there is no one of this description within the sound of my voice
to-day. We are of one heart. As our loss, so is our sorrow -one. The
mourning nation may well lament with this lamentation: "The beauty of
Israel is slain upon thy high places. How is the mighty fallen! We are
distressed for thee, our beloved President: very pleasant hast thou
been unto us: thy love was wonderful, passing the love of women."

But Jehovah is on the throne! His hand is in this
affliction. It is for our good. This calamity is only another evidence
of His love. We may see the necessity for it when we shall have come
into the light of a better day. It may have been to humble us; to
restrain our boasting; to make us realize our dependence on God. Too
much are we disposed to trust in an arm of flesh, forgetting that God
is our rock, and the most high God our Redeemer: to say, "Asshur shall
save us, and we will ride upon horses." Vain is the help of man.

We have been a proud, vainglorious people. We have been
wont to display with unbecoming hauteur the armorial ensigns of the
three noble races from

which we have descended, and flushed with recent victories, our minds
returned to the old groove. We said, "We are the people. Our
government is the strongest under the sun. We fear not the combined
forces of the world." And now, God in His displeasure has turned our
rejoicing into mourning, and constrained us to acknowledge Him in our
overwhelming grief. Herein we have an evidence of His gracious
purposes concerning us. Up from these dark waters He will bring us,
and do great things for us, only let us not turn again to folly.

Though our beloved President is dead, our Country lives. We are coming out of the wilderness,
through the good providence of our God, and are quite near the Land of
Promise. There is ground for hope concerning this nation. Our history encourages the expectation of a brighter
future. God never dealt with any nation as with this. He gathered from
the old world the noblest, purest, best, and brought them to the
wilderness to lay the foundations of the most beneficent government
the world has ever known, and He will not suffer it to be destroyed so
soon. The Egyptian monarchy, which boasted that its origin was far
away in the abyss of ages, continued through seventeen
centuries; then, destroyed by a Persian king, assumed other
forms, declining through other five centuries to its final
extinction. The origin of Greece dates back to a

period eighteen hundred years before Christ, and the old Grecian
States were absorbed by the Byzantine Empire at the end of twenty-one centuries. The Saxton Heptarchy, after
four centuries, was united under Egbert, and Great Britain, through
many dangers and revolutions, has come down through more than a thousand years. We cannot think that this nation will
perish in its infancy. Our recent history, also,
encourages hope. God was with us in the conflict. He overshadowed us
with His presence when in the high places of the field. The very
elements were on our side, and the stars in their courses fought
against our enemies. He who has been our help, will still be our
strength and shield, and redeem Israel out of all his troubles. Even
now we stand in the growing light of the morning-the morning of a day
whose setting, we trust, shall be far down the ages.

Moreover, the Temple of God is in our
midst. The Church has found a refuge in this land. Evangelical
religion has attained a growth in this country not exceeded, if
equalled, in any other. The Christian Church has not done its whole
duty to this land or to the heathen world, but it has done even more
than the Mother Country; it is doing more now than ever before. Will
not God spare the country for the Church's sake? If He would have
averted the doom of Sodom had there been ten

righteous men in it, will He not deliver this land out of all its
troubles, for the sake of the many thousands who are called by His
name?

There is much to encourage hope in the recognition of God
which comes from the people at large. The secular press never
acknowledged God so distinctly as now. Public proclamations and
official dispatches record His name. On our coin there is a grateful
and trustful recognition of Him in whom is all our hope. On
Independence Square, on Pennsylvania Avenue, and on many a tented
field, as if moved by one impulse, the people, hearing of the
successes which had attended our national arms, lifted up their ten
thousand voices in the grand old doxology,

"Praise God, from whom
all blessings flow;"

and from Capitol Hill blazed out over our national metropolis that
inspired sentiment: "It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in
our eyes."

My hearers, God has thoughts of love toward this nation. He
will give us peace. He will subdue the rebellious, heal divisions of
heart, and unite in bonds of love, common interests and aim, the
people of this land.

Here I am reminded of an incident in the early history of
this country. The signification of Potomac is
generally supposed to be, "the river of swans." Count Zinzendorf, who
was familiar with

the language of the Aborigines, says this is an error. He relates that
long ago the Delawares, who had been at war with a southern tribe,
with the view of securing an amicable adjustment of their
difficulties, appointed a meeting on the banks of the river which
separated their respective domains. The Delawares assembled at the
designated time and place. Hour after hour passed on, but the other
tribe failed to appear. The former were about to retire, for the sun
was near its setting, when one of their number saw a solitary Indian
on the summit of a distant hill. Believing that others were coming
after, he lifted up his hands with an exclamation of joy, saying,
"Po-to-mac,"-"Lo they come!"

The banks of this same river have been the scene of many a
hard-fought battle since then, and the Potomac has borne the blood of
martyred heroes to the Eastern main. Yet here we wait the return of
our erring countrymen. May they soon come, in penitence, to pledge
eternal fealty to the nation. Then, when we shall witness their
approach, we will fill the air with our glad rejoicings, shouting one
to another, "Po-to-mac,"--"Lo they come!"

The day is not far distant. There is a bow in the
cloud. There is a flood of light flashing athwart the troubled sky, at
which we look through our tears. Though we have not cast anchor, we
are nearing the harbor. Tried patriots who, trusting in

God, have weathered many a storm, have gone aloft, and overlooking the
intervening waves they shout down to us, "Land ahead!-Land ahead!"

Let all be true to God and their country. Let us remember
that Jesus, by His life and example, teaches us to be Patriots as well
as Christians. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive
on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to
care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and
his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."* Till that
blessed consummation is reached let all questions of minor importance
be forgotten. Let us stand by the government. Let us give it our
sympathy, our support, and offer for its preservation our daily
prayers.

"Then let the hurricane
roar,
It will the sooner be
o'er;
We'll weather the
blast,
And we'll 1and at
last,
Safe on the evergreen
shore."

But I would not have you forget that there is another and a better
kingdom, not of this world, which claims your service. Some love their
country more than their God. Some would rather hear

patriotic speeches than listen to gospel sermons. Let God be first
in your regard. Love your country, which is His gift, but never forget
the giver. Let religion and patriotism go together-one and
inseparable. Remember it is Jesus who saves, and devotion to county
can never take the place of devotion to Christ. Receive Him as your
King,

"Bring forth the royal
diadem,
And crown Him Lord of
all."

Beloved hearers, death is not far from any one of
you. Eternity is at hand! To-day, whilst clouds gather, and deep
shadows rest on your hearts, hear the voice of Jesus, saying: "Come
unto me, ye tempest tossed and not comforted, and I will give you
rest." Believe, obey, and live. Life's conflicts ended, you shall go
to a peaceful home afar. There the glorious Lord will be unto you a
place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with
oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby!